Tuesday, February 3, 2009

North Korea's Potential Threat To The World Analyzed

Reports that North Korea is preparing for a ballistic missile test - the test of a rocket that some analysts say could reach the west coast of the United States, was the topic of today's News Talk Online on Paltalk.com.

Center for International Policy senior fellow and Temple University professor Craig Eisendrath says it isn't certain that North Korea has the missile capacity to reach the western United States. But, he adds, "they could certainly hit Hawaii." Eisendrath, my guest today, says it's not believed they've developed the capacity to deliver a nuclear device by missile.

Many believe that North Korea is moving the missile into place to gain the attention of President Obama. Eisendrath says the new administration's approach could affect the course North Korea takes.

He says the Bush administration squandered opportunities to negotiate with North Korea over the past eight years. Setting the nation up as a member of the so-called "axis of evil," he says, only caused a paranoid government to become more so.

Eisendrath says the U.S. can start thawing relations with North Korea by providing humanitarian aid. "They are desperately," he says, "in need of food and fuel."

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

One of the questions I would have liked to have a chance to address with Craig Eisendrath is how the leadership, should it change if Kim Jung Il is indeed ill, will take a different approach to International relations.

In a way it's ludicrous that a country that is so poverty stricken, where its population is so brow beaten and starving can even think it has a major role to play on the world stage.Still, meglomaniacs are not something this world is unaware of.